The rapidly climbing ROI and other brags

Well I must say how nice it is to be on the positive side of variance. I've actually been running on the plus side for a week straight and finishing each night in the positive. I've not only been running well I've been playing well. Something has changed and it's somewhat in my play but mostly in my attitude. To be a winning poker player one must understand variance and manage tilt. Both of these can be tough to accomplish but I'm finally getting there.

One of the most important lessons I've learned lately is to see each situation as it truly is and not how I hope it is or want it to be. People tend to make statements and decisions based more on what they hope is the case instead of what they truly know or fear the case really is. Often many players will make a call because they want to believe their top pair top kicker is good instead of properly accessing the situation and realizing that based on their opponents actions during the hand that there is probably no way their hand is good. The flip side of this is folding when based on your opponents actions and/or tendencies it should be obvious that they are bluffing.

Poker is so much about attitude, of course it's about cards and luck but it's also as much about how you play those cards and how you manage the ups and downs. Staying calm and thinking clearly will go a long way in helping you win.

My ROI on Pokerstars and Full Tilt are both positive. On Full Tilt for all games played my ROI is 7% not great but not horrible either. On Pokerstars my ROI for all games is about 19% and for sit-n-goes its about 27%. This isn't over a huge sample size so it's really higher than it will end up over a bigger sample but it's still such an improvement. It is so nice to watch my ROI and graph going in the right direction. See below:

On a personal note, Tommy had his surgery last week and he's recovering pretty well. I don't think he realized quite how rough his surgery was going to be but he's handling everything pretty well. All the post-surgery reports were good, thank heavens!

Tommy's sister isn't doing that great. I just don't know what the outcome with her is going to be.

Well that's it for now! May your cards be live and your pots monsters!

A step into insanity - a.k.a. playing online poker on the weekends

It's amazing the difference in poker during the week and poker on the weekend. The weekend Donkeys were out in full force this weekend. I had shoves called with things as bad a 6 4 suited and I had aces and the 6 4 won with a straight. It was one donkey move after another and by the end of the day Sunday I was ready to take up reading for a hobby again.

Maybe I'll read on weekends and play poker only during the week from now on. Well now that's not going to happen but whatever.

Tommy's surgery is this coming Wednesday so I'll be off with him for a few days. He should be sleeping a lot so maybe I'll get a little extra play in.

His sister has been moved to a long term acute care facility and isn't making a lot progress but just a few small steps.

We went to see Blindside this weekend and it's really a great movie. It's nice to know they're people like that in this world. Someone who will take in some poor unfortunate boy like that and work with him so that he can make something of himself. One child saved from the environment that he came from is so wonderful and it's a shame more can't be saved.

Well that's about all for this post...

One step forward and two steps back

Well as usual I have one really good day at poker followed by one pretty bad day. I wish I could figure out why this always seems to happen. I rarely have more than one or two winning days in a row and I know some of it is just normal variance and some is due to mistakes I'm still making in my game. I've really got to identify my leaks and get them plugged.

It's also hard playing poker with limit time and an even more limited bankroll. The old adage "it takes money to make money" is more true in online poker than any other area. Using proper bankroll management I am stuck playing the low stakes with low payouts so my hourly rate is very low. This just gets frustrating at times but I know in the long run I'll be a better player for it.

Starting this weekend I going to start spending more time analyzing my play and running through my games using the replayer and try my best to see where I'm making the biggest mistakes.

On another note my Mom and I were planning on going to Harrah's Cherokee this weekend but the weather is going to be really bad with snow and ice so we had to cancel. I was really looking forward to playing on the digital poker tables but it will have to wait until later.

Well maybe my next post will be a big brag instead of a whine.

Ha!

Well January ended like a bomb, and I mean the bad kind. The PokerVT final did not go well at all. You know for players who are supposed to have a clue how to play poker they really can make some really stupid plays. I was in late middle position with AJ and raised 3x the bb, one guy who I've played with quite a bit calls me from either the sb or bb but definitely out of position. I flop a jack and raise and he calls, the turn puts 3 spades on the board, I raise and he calls. Well to make a long story short we get to show down and he turns over Q4 of spades for a flush. I couldn't believe he actually called a raise out of position with a crappy hand like that. That dude needs to watch some videos on PVT.

Anyway the whole day was just awful. Today I took a vacation day and stayed home intending to get some work around the house done but all I managed to do was some laundry but it was nice having the day off. Poker went pretty well too. I was in the money in about 75% of the games I played and finished the evening on Stars and Full Tilt with my balance up a bit.

I've made some goals for February:

Play at least 10 - 15 sngs per day - for a total of 300 for the month

Play at least 3 - 4 mtts per week - for a total of 12 - 15 for the month

Work on successfully playing 4 tables at times

Make silver status on Stars thus clearing my deposit bonus

Study poker at least 1.5 hours per day

Be more disciplined with my bankroll management

So hopefully I can accomplish these goals or at least come close.